Then she shut the door, and after unfastening Charnock’s collar and vest stood looking at him for a minute or two.  He had not wakened, but she had seen him like this before and was not alarmed.  His face was flushed and the veins on his forehead were prominent; his clothes were crumpled and sprinkled with bits of hay.  Sadie studied him with a feeling of helplessness that changed to contemptuous pity.  Her romantic dreams and ambitions had vanished and left her this——­

As she turned away her mood changed again.  After all, he was her husband and she had schemed to marry him.  She was honest with herself about this and admitted that Bob had not really loved her much.  But he needed her and she must not fail him.  There was some comfort in remembering that he had sought no other woman; her rivals were cards and liquor, and she did not mean that they should win.  Obeying a sudden impulse, she turned back and kissed his hot face, and then, noting the smell of whisky, flushed and went out with a firm step.

When she entered the office, however, her face was hard and white.  She did not sit down, but leaned against a desk opposite Wilkinson.

“Why did you ask Bob out to the range?”

Wilkinson did not like her look.  It hinted that she was in a dangerous mood, but he answered good-humoredly:  “I thought he wanted a change.  You hold him too tight, Mrs. Charnock.  Bob won’t stand for being kept busy indoors all day; he won’t make a clerk.”

“He won’t,” said Sadie.  “I’m beginning to see it now.  But you don’t care a straw for Bob.  You wanted a pick on me because I made you cut out your game that night.”

“No,” said Wilkinson, with a gesture of protest.  “I certainly thought you were too smart, although it was not my business.  Anyhow, if you let him have a quiet game with his friends at home—­”

“Pshaw!  I know you, Jake Wilkinson, better than Bob does.  You meant to make him drunk this evening and empty his wallet, and I guess you didn’t find it hard.”

Wilkinson’s face got red, but he saw he would gain nothing by denial.  Besides, there was a matter he was anxious about.

“It wasn’t hard to empty his wallet, because he had only a few small bills.”

“Yes; I fixed that.  How much did you win from him when he was drunk?”

“He got drunk afterwards,” Wilkinson objected.  “Then I didn’t win it all; there were three or four others.”

Sadie smiled rather grimly.  “How much?”

She got a jar when Wilkinson told her, but she fixed him with steady eyes.

“You knew what he had in his wallet, but let him go on?  You thought Keller’s would stand for the debt?”

“Yes,” said Wilkinson, with some alarm; “we certainly thought so.”

“Very well.  Keller’s makes good.  Take the pen and right out a bill like this—­R.  Charnock, debtor in losses on a card game.”

“You know it’s never done.”